As a conventional electrical connecting apparatus of this kind, an electrical connecting apparatus having a probe assembly in which a probe base plate as well as a plurality of probes extending from the probe base plate are provided has been proposed (See Patent Document 1). This conventional electrical connecting apparatus can act pressure or tensile force from a supporting member supporting the probe base plate on a part of the probe base plate. Even if a bend is produced in the probe base plate of the probe assembly, the bending deformation of the probe base plate can be modified by the adjustment of this action, thereby maintaining the flatness of the probe base plate.
In producing a probe assembly, therefore, even if a bending deformation is produced in the probe base plate where probes are to be provided, the above-mentioned adjusting work after assembling the probe assembly into the electrical connecting apparatus enables to keep the probe base plate flat, so that the multiple probe tips extending from the probe base plate can be maintained on the same plane. This enables all the probe tips to surely contact an electrical connecting terminal corresponding to each of the above-mentioned probes of the electric circuit of the device under test, thereby obtaining a favorable electrical contact therebetween.
According to the conventional art described in Patent Document 1, however, it is necessary, at the time of assembling the probe card assembly into the electrical connecting apparatus, to adjust so that all the probe tips may be positioned on the same plane according to the bending deformation introduced into each probe base plate every time the probe card assembly is assembled into the electrical connecting apparatus. The work of adjusting to make all the probe tips contact properly with each corresponding electrical connecting terminal of the device under test is complicated and requires skill. Particularly, in testing of numerous integrated circuits formed on a semiconductor wafer, since the number of probes of the probe assembly remarkably increases, it is not easy to adjust to make such numerous probes contact properly each corresponding pad on the semiconductor wafer. Moreover, since such adjustment is necessitated every time probe assemblies are exchanged, there has been a strong desire to dispense with such adjustment.
[Patent Document 1] National Patent Public Disclosure No. 2003-528459 Official Gazette